News

I have always been fascinated by Nana Mouskouri. She is the singer with the strange name and the big black glasses. I can't name of any of her songs, but I picked up her book, called simply Memoirs, with a feeling of anticipation. Now I might finally get an answer to the question that has been puzzling me for years: why does she always wear those big black glasses?

Like that other great European female singer of the 20th century, Maria Callas, Mouskouri is Greek. I have no idea why Greece should produce such great voices. There must be something in the moussaka. This is the tale of how Nana went from poor-little-Greek girl to global success (her publisher claims that she is the world's biggest-selling female artist).

The book starts with her first memory: German planes bombing Athens. It is April 6, 1941, and she is six-and-half years old.